


Like No Other

by Jules_711



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Any Relationships - Freeform, Destruction, Hurt Original Percival Graves, Obscurial Original Percival Graves, Original Percival Graves Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Original Percival Graves Needs a Hug, Possibly Credence's Obscurus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 07:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13631460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jules_711/pseuds/Jules_711
Summary: Seraphina had never seen such a thing of rage, born and created out of fear and pain. Condensed, like a storm over an ocean, like a wild fire, spreading, both burning and freezing everything it touched. Unbridled agony, a magic so violent and threatening that no one could ever hope to control it.But it was without a doubt, that somehow, Sera knew who she was looking at.





	Like No Other

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my freaky darlings. So... this just happened. I was going through a writers block during "Long Way Down", and suddenly, I thought, "What would it be like if Graves was an Obscurial? So this is set at the ending of the film, after Grindelwald has been captured. This will just be a one chapter thing, a planted idea that I hope will inspire a different take of fanfiction within the Percival Graves community. I sort of speed typed, and just had to end it as soon as I could otherwise I'd be here all night, and I need the sleeps, ya know? Anyways, let me know what you think! :)

LIKE NO OTHER

 

Seraphina had never seen such a thing of rage, born and created out of fear and pain. Condensed, like a storm over an ocean, like a wild fire, spreading, both burning and freezing everything it touched. Unbridled agony, a magic so violent and threatening that no one could ever hope to control it.  
  
"I thought the Obscurus was destroyed!" Came the cry from one of the Auror's as the monstrosity before them bore down, a mass of pure dark energy that no light could shine through, so familiar, so alike to the young Barebone's Obscurial that they had ordered to death a week ago in the subway.   
  
But this was unlike any Obscurus Seraphina had seen - several times larger than Barebone, and several times more powerful.   
  
It was without a doubt, that somehow, Sera knew who she was looking at. Call it instinct, call it that familiar static prickling her skin, a raw energy so powerful with a focus that all wizards and witches had envied. It had protected America since MACUSA had been founded, it had rose through a bloodline so raw, and numbered among the Original Twelve.   
  
It had risen with her at Ilvermorny, then again at the Auror training program. It had saved lives, and had fought with such ferocity that day almost to a cost of its own life. Soon after that it assigned, command, loyal and fierce and just, her right hand and the hand of MACUSA.   
  
It had also been understanding, distant but welcoming, even gentle at times.   
  
And it resigned in a man she called a dear friend.  
  
"It's Graves." She breathed, pale with the realization, and everyone else turned back to the destruction before them, all with mixed expressions of horror, wands that had previously been ready to open fire - now faltering, whether it be by doubt or otherwise, Seraphina didn't know, didn't take her eye's off the form before her that took up the entire street, blanketing the buildings and wrapping around street lamps where fractures in the glass threatened to shatter.   
  
"But it can't be! He's..." An Auror to her right cried, in fear and doubt, even as Seraphina moved, stepping forward against her better judgement, and ignoring the others around her.  
  
"Madam President!"   
  
"It's too dangerous!"   
  
She stepped forward, the being before her rumbled, setting its unseeing sights on her, a cold chill creeping across her skin at the feeling and almost forcing her back.   
  
Seraphina hesitated, but when she spoke, there was no doubt that she knew. "Percival...?"  
  
The Obscurus morphed, condensed, like billowing smoke that bristled, agitated and anguished, and it materialized on the road, to the upturned bricks, rumbling like an angry beast - and through it, a man appeared, so solid that Sera knew if she approached, if she reached out - she could touch him. He stood there, no more than a roads width from her. His clothes were ruffled and dirty, a familiar long coat normally so pristine - was torn, wisps of fabric caressing the ground much like the Obscurus around him did, surrounding him like a cage, cloaking broad shoulders and emitting from rough hands, knuckles battered and wrists bracelet-ed bloody where shackles could still be seen, the chain broken and glowing. His hair had grown from its normally neat style to something unkempt, face shadowed with stubble, dark brows drawn in an expression of such conflicted grief, but that was not what had Sera's heart breaking in two.   
  
It was his eye's.   
  
Dark, obsidian eyes, normally soft and stern - now held her own with so much accusation and pain that she almost looked away. There was a struggle there, eye's wide and wild, strangely not bearing that smokey white glaze, blinking through the strain of grief what bore her down where she stood.   
  
Shoulders heaved, breath rugged, and he struggled, form shifting its edges in and out of focus through the ash-like beast that crowded him in its clutches.   
  
" _You didn't notice!_ "   
  
Seraphina flinched, like she'd been struck, a cry that rebounded with such pain, such agony, that she found she couldn't talk even if she wanted to. A pin could have dropped, the street was suddenly so quiet, shock still, disbelief a thick shroud of familiar faces.  
  
But Graves continued, visibly fighting, shaking, falling apart at the seems even as she watched. "You didn't notice, _Phina_... and he broke me. He broke me because you didn't notice that I--" His voice choked on the old nickname, a testament to their life long friendship, and Graves struggled, struggled through the agony coursing though his veins, like fire and ice, burning and freezing, and the Obscurus rippled with anger as he forced the words out through gritted teeth. "--that I was not _me_."   
  
"Perc-"  
  
" _Do you really think_ -!" He was shouting now, voice carrying through the street and bouncing off its cold cobbled walls, and Seraphina was surprised that the accusation in the mans voice didn't crumble the street to dust alone. Non the less, the Obscurus rumbled, thriving off his pain, "--do you really think, that I would do what _he_ did, without judgement!? Would you really follow, so mindlessly, so _blindly_ , a call made without sanction that nearly got a fellow Auror and the brother of my friend killed!? That I would orchestrate a _war_!?"   
  
There was a stifling silence, so heavily set and choking, smothered with guilt.  
  
"Mr Graves..." Tina uttered, a small hesitant step forward with a realization - that it wasn't Graves who sentenced her and Newt to death that day, a realization that felt like a knife to the chest, a relief, to know that the man she long since looked up to would never do such a thing - and it hurt her, to know how much he would have fought, how much he would have resisted, fighting through all that time thinking that someone was looking for him, that someone would save him.  
  
It hurt her to know she had let him down.   
  
"...Tina." He looked to her then, his voice suddenly so small and rough with a vulnerability that broke Tina's heart, dark eye's ablaze with an apology, begging for a forgiveness that glistened in the shadowed glow of the street lights.   
  
Tina heard a voice in her head, yelling and screaming, that it was not he who should be asking for forgiveness, that it should be the other way around. She took another step closer, ignoring Picquery's warning that bore no real bite, ignoring the tears that glistened in her own eye's. "Sir..." She managed, fighting through the lump in her throat.  
  
"- _Don't_." Graves bit out, taking a quick step back even as the Obscurus bristled at her approach, his fingers twitched, gathered into shaking fists, bloodied nails digging into old wounds as he eyed her. " _Don't come any closer_."  
  
"Sir, I'm so s--"  
  
" _No!_ " The yell tore through the street, and the Obscurus raised, smoke and ash alive like a beast, lashing out violently with the pain of its host and crashing into the cobblestones at Tina's feet, driving her back and tearing up the road, bricks ripping up from the ground and showering around the Auror's who jumped back out of the way. Wisps of smoke emitted from Graves' shaking hands, slinking down from broad shoulders and around his arms much like the shackles around his wrists, caressing the edges of his coat billowing at his feet.  
  
It looked like it pained him. It probably did.   
  
Tina scrambled back, dust on her coat like grey coal, eye's never leaving the man before her even as a tear escaped her eyes to track down her face at his next words...   
  
"I'll hurt you, Tina... I don't want to hurt you." Graves choked out, and Tina was surprised to see a mirroring streak tracking down his face too, clearing through blood and dirt and pain, and Tina couldn't move, even if she wanted to. Everything seemed to come crashing down, the extent of things that cannot be fixed.  
  
What little hope she had left - just died, tracked down along with the tears on Graves' face, the look in his eyes.  
  
He'd given up.   
  
He'd never given up before.  
  
"I'm sorry." She whispered, that being the only thing she could manage at that point, that being the only thing anyone around them could manage at that point. They all owed him an apology, they all owed him more than an apology. Words won't change what they'd failed to notice. Words won't change what he'd been through.   
  
And Tina knew, he'd been through far more than they could ever imagine. The evidence was right there, chipping away at every surface it touched, gouges and scars in the upturned bricks. It morphed, it bore down, around them, around _him_.   
  
And Graves, the man that he was, the man that he always was, whispered just as quietly; "I know."   
  
And Tina broke down.   
  
He looked back to Seraphina then, to the group of his own Auror's behind her, to the faces he'd long since protected, and he watched, part of an old life slipping onto his features, knowing they would recognize, knowing they would take this order one last time. And a grim, mournful look took over his features as understanding dawned on Sera's face.  
  
"Don't do this." She pleaded, even as she tensed, even as her fingers gripped her wand.  
  
"You know what you have to do." Graves told Seraphina, ignoring Tina's own plea, ignoring the pain that spread like wild fire through his veins, in place of something dark, in place of something forbidding.   
  
This time, when his fingers flexed - they were steady.   
  
The beast around him shifted, hackles raising along with its host, thriving and hungry as the bricks around him started trembling, fractures in glass finally splintering and shattering, buildings threatening to crumble to dust. The tremor shook the people before him, wands raising instinctively to the threat, to the darkness gathering around his form, becoming one with his own.   
  
"Graves!"   
  
The Obscurus condensed, morphing, tensing, its breath at hot as dragon fire, and it shrouded Graves, closing in on his form like shadows at dusk, icy wisps gathering and readying with the words that left Graves' mouth with a dark promise.  
  
"Because you're going to have to stop me, and I'm not going to want to let you."   
  
This time, when his fingers flexed...  
  
...the beast within him answered.

**Author's Note:**

> :O


End file.
